KewlCat Designs A Jewelry Designers Explorations in Knitwear

About

I’m a jewelry designer at heart and I also love working with fiber. The jewelry class offered in high school got my obsession going.  My reach for perfection lead me to sand down my first earring to a knife edge. I hated it believe it or not but that feeling didn’t last long. I was right back at it the following semester and have not stopped ever since. 

I’m a jewelry designer at heart and I also love working with fiber.

The University of the Arts in Philadelphia is where I acquired a BFA in Crafts focusing on Metals.  My career path went from being a sales person in jewelry store to doing bench work for a local jeweler to becoming the head designer for a costume jewelry company in Providence RI. Now I work for myself.

I happened upon Knitting and the fiber arts quite accidently. If I remember correctly Marc, then boyfriend now husband, and I were in between homes while searching for our next one in 1999.  Often we spend time hunting for treasure.  Well treasure found me in the form of an inexpensive bag of Rowen wool.  There must have been twenty skeins in this bag and I had never crocheted or knit beyond a cast on before but I needed to rescue this catch. The stash came before the skills and I needed to learn what to do with it.

I found a few hooks and purchased a Leisure Arts pattern book called “63 Easy to Crochet Pattern Stitches – Combine to Make an Heirloom Afghan” and I was off. I crocheted a few squares then learned how to knit. Knitting stole my heart. Wool and cotton were my favored materials for a few years before I found Textile Techniques in Metal: For Jewelers Textile Artists & Sculptors by Arline Fisch and decided to apply my newly learned fiber techniques to metal. 

Leaf Lace Earrings Hand Knit 18k Gold and Fine Silver

You can find my other work at https://katewilcoxleigh.com

Kate Wilcox-Leigh Leaf Lace Earrings Medium Fine Silver Polished Small 18ky gold 2017004
Double mobius cotton bracelet collection Fall Winter by Kate Wilcox-Leigh

Wool Double Mobius Bracelets

I’m glad you’re here!